Harikrishna, Sasikiran and Barsov share title

Grandmasters Pendyala Harikrishna, Krishnan Sasikiran and Alexei Barsov of Uzbekistan jointly won the premier tournament of 77th Hastings International Chess Congress that concluded on Sunday.

The trio tallied 6.5 points from nine rounds to finish 1.5 points ahead of GM Mark Hebden of England.

Among the three winners, Harikrishna's performance was the best as the 15-year-old stands to gain more than 20 ELO points.

The last round action went on expected lines as Harikrishna drew comfortably against Hebden and top seed GM Zhang Zhong of China putting up stiff resistance to hold Sasikiran in a marathon game.

That gave Barsov a chance to catch up with the Indian duo and he played enterprisingly to win a topsy-turvy game against bottom placed IM Irina Krush of United States to share the first prize.

The fifth and sixth positions went to Zhong and GM Petr Kiriakov of Russia respectively who finished with 4.5 points while GM Joe Gallagher of Switzerland finished seventh on four points.

Harikrishna played the Queen's Gambit accepted, an opening in vogue in this tournament. As if taking a cue from Irina, Harikrishna followed a line favoured by her against him earlier in the tournament and had no trouble in equalising as Hebden went for routine exchange of pieces to arrive at a level rook and minor pieces endgame.

Play continued slowly and Hebden realised it was futile to carry on. The peace treaty was signed after 42 moves.

Sasikiran tried his best but failed to break through the defences of Zhong from the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf defence game.

Zhong chose the classical set up and allowed Sasikiran to equalise easily. In the middlegame, a wrong plan by Zhong enabled Sasikiran to win a pawn but the game never really left the boundaries of a draw.

With queen, rook and a bishop left in the endgame, Sasikiran's extra pawn was successfully blocked by Zhong in the centre and there was nothing in the position thereon. Sasikiran took the draw after 65 moves.

Barsov was in his element though he survived some anxious moments against Krush. The opening was a Nimzo Indian defence and Krush opted for the Rubenstein variation to get a slightly better position in the middlegame.

Playing all out for a win, Barsov went for complications and looked in trouble in the queen and rook endgame but a timely exchange of queens after Krush sacrificed a pawn, enabled him to get on top.

The Rook and pawns endgame was handled excellently by Barsov as he marched his king to the centre and carved out a well deserved victory in 69 moves.

GM Peter Wells of England finally brought an end to his nightmarish run and put it across compatriot IM Nicholas Pert in a French defence game with white pieces.

The win helped Wells to finish ninth, ahead of Krush.

It was a five-way tie for the top spot in the Challengers torunament that ended simultaneously.

Top seed veteran GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky (Russia), GM Glenn Flear, GM Keith Arkell (both England), IM Zvonko Stanojoski (Macedonia) and IM Sergei Azarov (Belarus) got the top honours with 7.5 points each.

Indian GM Dibyendu Barua, IMs D V Prasad, Graeme Buckley (England) and Alexander Cherniaev (Russia) tied for sixth place with 7 points apiece.

Prasad concluded on a positive note, getting the better of GM Colin Mcnab of Scotland. GM Pravin Thipsay drew his last round game against GM Neil Mcdonald of England to finish the tournament on 6.5 points. Thipsay's wife, IWM Bhagyashree, was the best performer among the Indian women with six points.

In the last round, Flear agreed to split the point against Tsheshkovsky while Stanojoski followed suit against Barua. The two big winners were Arkell and Azarov who scored over compatriots IM Daniel Gormally and Stanislav Smetankin respectively.

The moves (Ninth round):
M Hebden vs P Harikrishna
Result: 1/2-1/2
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 c5 6. O-O a6 7. a4 Nc6 8. Nc3 Be7 9. Qe2 cxd4 10. Rd1 e5 11. exd4 exd4 12. Nxd4 Nxd4 13. Qe5 Qd6 14. Qxd4 Qxd4 15. Rxd4 Bc5 16. Rh4 O-O 17. h3 h6 18. Ne4 Be7 19. Ng3 Bd7 20. a5 Rac8 21. b3 Nh7 22. Re4 Bf6 23. Rb1 Bc6 24. Re3 Rfe8 25. Rxe8+ Rxe8 26. Bb2 Bxb2 27. Rxb2 Nf6 28. f3 Re5 29. b4 Bb5 30. Ba2 Kf8 31. Kf2 Nd5 32. Bxd5 Rxd5 33. Ne4 Bc6 34. Rd2 Re5 35. Nc5 Ke7 36. h4 g5 37. hxg5 hxg5 38. Rd4 f6 39. Rd2 Rf5 40. Rd4 Re5 41. Rd1 Rf5 42. Rd4 Re5

Z Zhong vs K Sasikiran
Result: 1/2-1/2
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e5 7. Nb3 Be7 8. O-O O-O 9. Kh1 b6 10. Be3 Bb7 11. f3 b5 12. a4 b4 13. Nd5 Nxd5 14. exd5 Nd7 15. c4 bxc3 16. bxc3 Bg5 17. Bf2 Qc7 18. c4 a5 19. Qe1 Rfb8 20. Ra3 g6 21. Bd3 f5 22. Qe2 Nf6 23. Qc2 Re8 24. Ra2 Rac8 25. Qb1 Ba6 26. c5 Bxd3 27. Qxd3 dxc5 28. Bxc5 Qf7 29. Bb6 Nxd5 30. Bxa5 Nc3 31. Rb2 Nxa4 32. Rbb1 Nc5 33. Nxc5 Rxc5 34. Bb6 Rd5 35. Qc4 Rd7 36. Qa4 Rb8 37. Bg1 Rxb1 38. Rxb1 Kg7 39. Re1 Bf6 40. h3 Qd5 41. Bf2 Qd2 42. Kg1 Qd5 43. Qc2 Qa8 44. Qc4 Qd8 45. Qa4 Qc7 46. Rb1 Re7 47. Re1 Qd7 48. Qc2 Qb7 49. Rb1 Qc7 50. Qb2 Qc6 51. Qd2 Rd7 52. Qe2 e4 53. fxe4 fxe4 54. Re1 Re7 55. Be3 h5 56. Rc1 Qd6 57. Rd1 Qe6 58. Qd2 Qb3 59. Rf1 Be5 60. Qf2 Kh7 61. Re1 Qd3 62. Qf8 Rg7 63. Qc5 Bd6 64. Qg5 Be7 65. Qe5 Qd6

Earlier reports:
Harikrishna, Sasikiran share lead
Sasikiran joins Harikrishna in lead
Harikrishna takes sole lead
Harikrishna draws but retains lead
Harikrishna emerges sole leader
Harikrishna leads at Hastings
Sasikiran seeded No. 2 at Hastings